Westworld started fairly strong, I think. The happenings of the corporation outside the fantasy world I didn't find very captivating, but the world itself was set up nicely. There's an overt critique of simulated violence and I rather enjoyed how the robots of Westworld behaved like non-playable video game characters, glitching out or unable to comprehend humans' mention of the outside world or the simulation.

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The best moment of the premiere was when a robot given the role of the murderous bandit is shot dead mid-sentence by a "newcomer," shocking the bandit's partner into silence as she too is offed by the tourist happy to get a photo after with the corpses! It's a darkly funny moment to see the world's head writer roll his eyes at his character being cut off in the middle of his chilling speech. I find that moment fascinating since it reflects an interest of mine that's grown in the era of open world gaming: user interference with the intended story. I would be very happy to see Westworld become a sort of live action Grand Theft Auto, wherein the world's offerings and user desires clash to produce unintended outcomes. I think the Ed Harris character demonstrates this as well - a user so bored by the countless times he's seen the same story play out that he resorts to taunting the world's robots and engaging in the most depraved acts imaginable.

Also, the potential for exploration of simulated violence is exciting since few movies or TV shows have approached the kind of relentless murder and rape and whatever else an artificial world can cultivate. There are of course examples, but with the explosion of games that seemingly give the player absolute freedom, I was waiting for other media to catch up and wag a finger, so to speak. Westworld seems aiming for that kind of critique, as the users treat the bots like cattle to be killed or fucked. I particularly enjoyed the scene where two women look over James Marsden's good guy and the one remarks she's looking for a bad guy type. There's a lot of potential in the show so I hope it doesn't stumble too much going forward.

I've only just now watched the premiere, but it may have been the best first episode for a prestige series like this I've ever seen. It establishes the compelling themes and strong visual style I would hope the series leans on throughout, while also clearly laying out the rules, core characters, and mysteries of the world in such a way that I'm excited both to continue watching the series and rewatch this first episode at least once more in the next few days. I have no idea if the show will be able to sustain this level of quality, but the premiere is unequivocally promising in a way that the first episodes of even the best series rarely are (Breaking Bad, GoT, Mad Men, True Detective Season 1).

I'm happy to see that the second season premiere picks up right after the events of last season's finale. Based on the promo for the upcoming episodes, it looks like things will advance beyond the park.

Also, the location of the park looks to be

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somewhere off the coast of China given the Chinese military showing up early on in the episode.

Back to last week's episode but I love how one of Ed Harris' scenes is essentially a mashup of two classic scenes from movies.

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When he meets the young Robert host, it's like the iconic moment between Henry Fonda and the child in Once Upon a Time in the West (which the show has frequently referenced all around) and when Michael Douglas talks to his television in The Game.

While I was disappointed with the season two premiere episode (felt like it was simply reiterating what we already knew), the season has gotten better with each new episode. Last night's one was, indeed, excellent with plenty of new tangents to keep things interesting. I loved how the Jim Delos scenario alluded to...

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...the famous urban myth that Walt Disney had his body frozen with the hope of being reanimated through some kind of future technology.

Was hoping from the start of this season Mullan and Ed Harris would have a moment together, and was not disappointed with how they delivered it last night. A good emotional turning point for Harris' character, particularly with how the episode ended.

Last week's episode was great, but this latest one was the weakest of the season. It was a filler episode. Nothing of consequence happened until the end. It wasted the one interesting idea it had, of the hosts directly encountering the evidence of their own lack of authenticity, but wastes it on sentimentality. The one British asshole spent the whole episode either pointing out the obvious or saying 'this isn't supposed to happen' after every plot beat.

Maeve's storyline is the least interesting so far. I hope they pay it off in interesting ways, because, honestly, I was disappointed when at the end of last season she chose to stay to pursue a relationship she knew to be inauthentic and not a real part of her burgeoning personality instead of getting on the train. Dolores had and is having much more interesting reactions; I love the nihilism and anger, her sense that so much of what was meaningful to her has no true meaning. Maeve, the most self-aware and intelligent of the hosts from last season, is saddled not with the burdens of self-consciousness but the triteness and sentimentality of traditional maternal feelings. Chasing a previous backstory is not a clear evidence of free will as Maeve claims; it's remaining shackled to old narratives. Of all the places to take her story, I'm disappointed they chose one so rote and unpromising, one that reduces her range of thoughts and emotions to just a few possibilities.

The problem, too, is that where other storylines are setting up mysteries and parceling out revelations, hers is in a holding pattern: just adding more blocking figures to prevent her from completing her quest too early.